Food to fall in love over: 16 great date night restaurants in Manchester

The Black Friar stood empty and unloved for almost 20 years before reopening in summer 2021 after a substantial renovation project. Now a modern British restaurant and a traditional pub, it has two distinct settings with menus to match.

Once a stall at Levy Market, then a pop-up pizzeria above Fred’s Ale House, Cibus took baby steps to get to where it is today; a fully-fledged and much-praised Italian restaurant and bar on Levenshulme high street, and the winner of The Good Food Guide’s award for Best Local Restaurant North West 2024.

Hakkapo is Manchester’s Izakaya – that is, a Japanese bar where people go to eat, drink and just generally hang out after a long day at work.

Loom & Ladle Bistro is the restaurant in Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly – and a destination in its own right. As its name suggests, it’s a place where Manchester’s heritage and passion for food come together. The bistro-style restaurant serves classic dishes made with fresh, local ingredients.

Lock 84 is the all-day restaurant and bar inside four-star hotel The Reach, which opened on Ducie Street in summer 2024. With its preference for locally-sourced ingredients and chic, characterful design, it feels more Northern Quarter independent than international hotel chain. In reality it sits somewhere between the two.

The MUSU Collection is a group of innovative modern dining experiences, all under one roof. With three AA rosettes, this is the cutting edge of Manchester’s restaurant scene.

Many of us are familiar with the vibrant cuisines of Vietnam and Thailand but Cambodian, or Khmer, food is still relatively unexplored territory in the UK. Kambuja in Marple is one of the country’s few dedicated Cambodian restaurants – and it’s a good one. It received rave reviews in the national press when it opened in 2017 under its former name of Angkor Soul.

The Pen and Pencil is the Northern Quarter’s cool all-day hangout, modelled on the New York bar of the same name popular with the city’s journalists and ad men in the 1950s and 1960s. It has a reputation for great cocktails, quality food and an atmosphere that makes it stand out from nearby imitators.

Skof is the first restaurant from chef Tom Barnes who, as head chef at Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume, helped it win its third Michelin star. In February 2025, he secured a Michelin star for Skof, with the judges praising its ‘clearly thought-through’ dishes and ‘delicate seasoning’.

Manchester’s highest restaurant, bar and terrace 20 Stories was the opening of 2018 and still maintains its status as one of the city’s most popular place to eat, drink, be snapped and be seen.

Based in the unit of Stanley Square that was once home to Sale Food Hall, Canteena Bar & Grill is serving up hearty Modern British meals in a food hall-style setting.

The first thing you notice when you step into fine-dining restaurant Climat is the view. Situated on the roof of Blackfriars House, you’re just above the city skyline, close enough to see the details of the architecture, but high enough to feel like you’re in the clouds.

With its terrace overlooking Oxford Road and its much-photographed spiral staircase, Fumo is a favourite spot in Manchester for dinner and drinks with friends.

The first Hawksmoor steakhouse outside of London is a confident affair. Well sourced steak and attention to detail have created a place like no other.

Lucky Cat by Gordon Ramsay is the first restaurant that the famed TV chef has decided to open in the city of Manchester, despite already having opened Bread Street Kitchen & Bar in Liverpool last year. 

Michelin-starred restaurant Mana is the brainchild of chef patron Simon Martin who mastered his trade at the renowned Noma in Copenhagen. At Mana, Martin has succeeded in carving his own path – one which confuses and delights people in equal measure.

This unassuming, independent restaurant overlooking the historic Smithfield Fish Market is a stalwart of the Northern Quarter’s dining scene. Co-owner and chef Anthony Fielden has been cooking up a storm at TNQ since 2004, winning various awards and accolades along the way. 

The Sparrows serves up a variety of fresh, handmade continental pasta and Central and Eastern European dumplings in an unexpectedly airy space underneath a railway archway in Red Bank.

Winsome is a relatively new restaurant in Manchester but it already feels like an established part of the city’s dining scene. Perhaps that’s down to its timeless classic cooking or perhaps the pedigree of the team behind it.